Is Jogging Good for Insomnia During Perimenopause?
Lying awake at 3am during perimenopause? Discover how jogging improves sleep onset, sleep quality, and helps break the cycle of hormonal insomnia.
Why Insomnia Is So Common in Perimenopause
Sleep problems affect the majority of women during perimenopause, making insomnia one of the most widespread and quality-of-life-affecting symptoms of this stage. Declining progesterone, which has natural sedative properties, disrupts the ability to fall and stay asleep. Estrogen fluctuations affect the regulation of body temperature during sleep, triggering night sweats that cause repeated waking. Anxiety and an overactive mind, both common in perimenopause, compound these direct hormonal effects and can create a pattern of chronically broken sleep.
How Jogging Improves Sleep in Perimenopause
Regular jogging is one of the most evidence-backed non-pharmaceutical interventions for insomnia. It reduces the time it takes to fall asleep, increases total sleep duration, and improves the proportion of time spent in deep, restorative sleep stages. Jogging lowers cortisol over time, and elevated cortisol is a major driver of the racing mind and arousal that prevents sleep onset. It also raises body temperature during exercise, and the subsequent cooling down in the hours that follow creates a sleep-onset signal that the brain recognises.
When to Jog for Best Sleep Results
Timing is more important for insomnia than for most other symptoms. Jogging too close to bedtime can elevate core temperature and stimulate the nervous system at the wrong moment, making sleep onset harder. Finishing your jog at least two to three hours before bed gives your body time to cool and your nervous system time to downregulate. Morning jogs are particularly beneficial for sleep because they help regulate the circadian rhythm by exposing you to daylight early in the day, reinforcing the natural sleep-wake cycle.
The Sleep-Anxiety Cycle and How Jogging Breaks It
Perimenopausal insomnia often involves a sleep-anxiety feedback loop. Poor sleep increases anxiety, and anxiety makes sleep worse. Jogging interrupts this cycle at both ends. It reduces baseline anxiety during the day, which makes it easier to relax at bedtime. It also produces sufficient physical tiredness that sleep pressure, the body's biological drive to sleep, builds more strongly by evening. Women who jog regularly often describe a qualitative change in how tired they feel at night: a genuine, physical sleepiness rather than the exhausted-but-wired feeling that insomnia tends to produce.
Tips for Jogging When You Are Sleep-Deprived
Chronic sleep deprivation makes exercise feel hard, which can create resistance to the very habit that would help. On days after poor sleep, adjust your expectations downward. A gentle jog at an easy pace, or even a brisk walk, is better than an intense run that leaves you wiped out for the rest of the day. Prioritise consistency over performance. Three easy jogs in a week done consistently over months will improve sleep far more than occasional hard efforts interspersed with days of exhausted inactivity.
Building a Sleep-Supportive Routine
Jogging works best for insomnia as part of a broader sleep hygiene routine. Consistent wake times, limiting screen light in the evening, keeping your bedroom cool, and avoiding caffeine after early afternoon all compound the benefits of regular exercise. If insomnia is severe and has persisted for months, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is the most effective evidence-based treatment and pairs well with regular jogging. Track your sleep and your runs together to see the relationship between exercise consistency and sleep quality over time.
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